ALBANY – The latest comments by the group which operates New York’s bulk electric grid has elicited a response from both proponents and opponents of the proposed 190-mile electric transmission corridor which, if approved, would stretch through seven towns in Chenango County on its way from Marcy to New Windsor.
While the comments in a nine page memorandum issued by a representative of New York Independent System Operator do not speak directly in favor of, or in opposition to, the New York Regional Interconnect proposal, both sides have found items they claim support their stance.
The purpose of the statement was to provide comment on the New York State Energy Plan and was directed to Paul A. DeCotis, chairman of New York State’s Energy Planning Board.
While NYRI is not specifically mentioned in the memo, or in a comprehensive white paper on Electric Transmission Expansion issued last month by the non-profit entity, representatives of the company are citing contents of the report as an endorsement of the project.
“The NYISO report is interesting to NYRI in that it supports the important environmental point that NYRI has been making for two years, namely, that new transmission is necessary if [New York] State is going to succeed in expanding its use of wind energy and other renewables,” said David Kalson of RFBinder Partners, Inc., the public relations firm retained by NYRI.
Communities Against Regional Interconnect (CARI), the organization representing seven counties and five public interest groups along the corridor, including Chenango County and Stop NYRI, disagrees with NYRI’s interpretation of NYISO’s statement.
“NYRI’s PR firm has been trying to tie the NYRI project to wind development in New York State to ‘green wash’ the project. NYRI does not provide the necessary infrastructure the wind producers are looking for,” said Donna M. Jones, Chenango County’s director of planning and development and CARI’s local representative. “The primary use of NYRI is to increase Canadian power imports and move the power to downstate New York.”
A statement from a previous report was often quoted by opponents of NYRI during public statement hearings held by the Public Service Commission earlier this year.
“NYISO has stated that no improvements are needed to the New York Power Grid for the next 10 years. CARI agrees with that position,” said Jones.
Opponents of the project will no doubt find additional ammunition against the high voltage power line project in NYISO’s comments.
According to another line in the same paragraph cited by NYRI, NYISO stated, “Providing enhancements to the existing transmission infrastructure by utilizing existing rights-of-way to the maximum extent practicable will mitigate the environmental and siting impacts of expanding the system.”
One of the project’s identified alternatives, on which the PSC will hear direct testimony during the evidentiary hearings in March, is for the power line project to follow the existing Marcy-South corridor.
In the memo, NYISO also stressed the urgency of New York identifying a course of action as soon as possible in order to avoid federal intervention.
In 2007, much of New York was designated as part of the Mid-Atlantic Area National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor. This gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the authority to enact federal eminent domain authority in order to expedite power line projects it deems of national interest. All of NYRI’s proposed primary route falls within this corridor.